Wildflower Turf

[NeilW]

Hello everyone

I thought you guys may be able to help me out with one of my latest plant based projects

Our design company has been commissioned to create a time lapse video of grass growing. Not just any grass however, its actually this amazing product called Wildflower Turf that allows you to basically roll out your own wildflower meadow in the same way as garden turf.

The plan is to grow it out in a glass tank that will allow us to capture the cross section of roots. Ideally we would like to shoot inside to get more controllable lighting.

My questions are as follows;

-How well will this grass grow inside?
-What kind of setup would you recommend for lighting? - I was thinking something like this reflector combined with this bulb
-Is there any kind of auto-misting kit available?
-Did you know of any good hydroponic supply links?

Any tips appreciated

 

[Garuf]

Most meadow mixes are totally unsuitable for most peoples gardens needing conditions that just aren't possible, they as a general rule need extremely nutrient poor soils which most people don't have they also take years to truly naturalise and become stable, I'd be surprised if this is any different.

This might not help particularly but have a watch of bbc "life" they grew a wood in a studio for exactly this purpose.

 

[NeilW]

From what I'm told I think the guy has been developing it for years to get the right mix of species that will be OK, I think his dad started it originally. I've yet to see the product myself but his client list is pretty impressive so I'm guessing it must work. Seems an interesting project.

Cheers mate I'll check it out, I'd forgotten about that. I know exactly the clip you mean as I've got the series on DVD!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
The CFL/lamp and reflector would do fine, but I'd probably prefer a linear T5 array as they are a bit more flexible. <http://www.thegreenmachineonline.co...tion-lighting/lightwave-t5-2-tube-2-growlight>. You can get auto misters for vivaria, "Zoomed" do one. Personally I think that you can just use a layer of "Hydroleca" below the turf, and keep that topped up. You can see the water level through the glass, and that should be fine without any misters etc. If you were worried you could always use a time switched pump to water the tanks, I've used Maxi-jet powerheads for this, or the Eheim 200 pumps etc.

Most meadow mixes are totally unsuitable for most peoples gardens needing conditions that just aren't possible, they as a general rule need extremely nutrient poor soils

Garuf is right, mainly because of the soil fertility issues, but this does look quite a good product. I did some work with Emorsgate seeds a few years ago, and most of the bits we did overgrew fairly quickly. We are still doing some work on green-hay strewing at Carymoor, this has been much more successful, probably largely to do with the nutrient poor, alkaline nature of the landfill clay topping. <http://www.carymoor.org.uk/research/bathspagrass.htm>

Have you had a look at Sheffield University? The BUGS project is very interesting <http://www.bugs.group.shef.ac.uk/> and there is Nigel Dunnett's spin-off work, "Pictorial Meadows" <http://www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk/about_us>.

cheers Darrel

 

[NeilW]

Just the man! Some excellent advice there, I'll take a look at all those links.

Thanks again!
Neil

 

[Garuf]

Nigel Dunnet's book is very good, I've read it cover to cover a fair few times. Wildflower meadows are something that I'd really like to see more of but there high maintenance cost and very high failure rates makes them impractical a lot of the time. Every time I've proposed one for my course something has meant it just isn't feasible which is a real shame.